The City of Greensboro unveiled plans Monday to transform a former water treatment facility into a community destination. The site is in the eastern part of the city and was decommissioned last fall.
Plans for the North Buffalo Water Reclamation Facility would turn the majority of the area into a park, complete with a playground and community garden.
Greensboro Water Resources Director Steve Drew says the project will involve demolition, but also incorporate some of the existing architecture.
“Someone on my staff had seen where there was an amphitheater built in an old trickling filter," Drew says. "A trickling filter is a large round basin that's several feet deep, and ours happens to be about 160 feet across. It started with the amphitheater as the centerpiece, and it grew from there.”
The theme of the park will be water, biodiversity, and sustainability. Some of the funding will come from revenue from the city's water, sewer, and stormwater services. The rest will likely come from future sponsors and partners.
The city will maintain a wastewater transfer station and a stormwater collection and flood control station at the site which will be controlled remotely.